TIMMINS, Ontario—A few miles from a stretch of highway named Shania Twain Way, at the end of winding Shania Twain Drive, sits a building called the Shania Twain Centre.

But the complex has a date with the wrecking ball next month. That has everyone from die-hard fans of the Timmins-raised country-music star to the city council scrambling over how to wind down what was once this mining town's biggest bet to diversify its economy.

City officials are debating putting on display—in glass cases scattered around town—some of the Twain memorabilia the center once housed. Ms. Twain has already taken some of that back to Las Vegas, where she currently lives during an extended tour at Caesars Palace.

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Groupies are moving an annual fan gathering from Timmins to Las Vegas. Some Twainiacs, as some fans call themselves, say they will continue to visit Timmins, population about 43,000, to see locals who have become friends over the years.

"I was devastated" about the center's closing, says Debbie Smith, a 60-year-old from Arcadia, Calif., who traveled to Timmins seven times. Ms. Smith makes cross-stitch portraits of Ms. Twain, one of which was displayed at the center—along with Grammys, gold records and outfits worn by the star.

Back in the late 1990s, at the peak of Ms. Twain's popularity, the center seemed like a good idea. Her 1997 album "Come On Over," with hits like "Man! I Feel Like a Woman," topped country charts.

The mining industry, however, was in a slump. Timmins, about 430 miles north of Toronto, has been a mining hub ever since gold was discovered here about a century ago. Town officials have long feared the mines would eventually dry up, and just over a decade ago, looked to tap its connection to Ms. Twain to diversify.

Ms. Twain, whose real name is Eilleen Regina Edwards, was born in Windsor, Ontario. But she grew up here.

Several Timmins locals have gone on to play professional hockey, but Ms. Twain remains the town's best-known, international celebrity. She started her performing career at a rough and tumble local bar in the now-demolished Maple Leaf Hotel.

ENLARGE

Rene Gaudreau met his wife, Andrea, shown with their son, at a Shania Twain Fan Convention in 2004.
Will Connors/The Wall Street Journal

Timmins city councilors originally forecast the center would bring in tens of thousands of visitors, and the province of Ontario chipped in funding for the project. In 1999, city officials and a young architect named Georges Quirion flew to Switzerland, where Ms. Twain was living at the time. Over the course of a six-hour meeting, Mr. Quirion recalls, they laid out their vision for the building. It would be built using local materials, with nods to the city's heritage, such as wooden beams like the kind used in mine shafts.

To appeal to Ms. Twain's sentiment, Mr. Quirion displayed the plans in a pizza box from a favorite local restaurant, Don's Pizzeria. He says Ms. Twain first thought he had brought her a pizza from Timmins, and loved the idea of the building. She agreed to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of memorabilia to the center, he says.

Ms. Twain declined to comment through a representative.

The 3.7 million Canadian dollars (US$3.6 million) center—a gray modernist edifice with a curved entrance and a slate roof—officially opened in 2001. It housed a museum of Twain memorabilia, a visitor center and a movie theater. It shared space with an exhibition that offered a tour of a closed mine.

Locals have long been divided over it. That is even more true now that its days are numbered.

"Honestly, I think it was a waste of taxpayer money," says Robin Kelly, manager at local restaurant Wacky Wings. "All that money into a building and now they're tearing it down?"

Still, it seemed like a hit at first. Many locals say it is the most striking building in town. Oprah Winfrey filmed parts of a 2011 TV special about Ms. Twain in Timmins, featuring the center prominently.

For years, the country music star's most loyal followers converged here for an annual fan convention. Center staff would organize trips based on activities Ms. Twain would have done as a child, like walks through the woods and stops at a country store she used to frequent.

ENLARGE

The center officially opened in 2001.
Will Connors/The Wall Street Journal

More recently, Ms. Twain's career has ebbed as she took several years away from recording new music or touring. Visitor numbers to the center petered out, and it started to lose money.

At the same time, Timmins' mining fortunes started looking brighter. While gold prices have fallen sharply recently, they had been on what looked like a relentless climb in recent years.

The center lies on the edge of an old, roughly one mile-wide gold mine, first opened in 1910, and now owned by Goldcorp Inc. The city approached the company about buying the center and its land. Goldcorp agreed and paid C$5 million. After it finishes extracting what it believes is the small bit of gold still left in the old mine, it plans to turn the land into a park.

Ms. Twain has taken back much of the memorabilia that she donated, including a tour bus and a concert stage. It falls to the city to find homes for other items. Officials have already found a place for a shiny white track suit Ms. Twain wore carrying the torch in the lead up to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver—in a glass case at the regional airport.

Tracy Hautanen, former manager of the center, now works for Ms. Twain's charity, Shania Kids Can, focused on helping youngsters in the Timmins area excel at school. She says she is working with the city to put more exhibits up around town.

John Curley, a Timmins town councilor and former board member at the center, says it was a tough decision to sell the site. But he also said Ms. Twain's extended run in Las Vegas didn't help. "Are you going to fly all the way to Timmins to see [Ms. Twain's] dress on a mannequin, or fly to Vegas and see her in the flesh?" he says.

Local fans are disappointed, even if many say they understand the economic realities.

"This was like the mecca for Shania fans," says Rene Gaudreau, a school principal in Timmins who volunteered at the center—and who met his wife at the second annual Shania fan convention in 2004. "For those fans who like to get together with people of like mind and interests, and see where Shania grew up, it was pretty special for them."

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